Global sales of surgical robotic systems are projected to reach $28.8 billion by 2020, according to a 2016 report by US research consultancy Allied Market Research (AMR). According to AMR, the increased adoption of advanced robotic surgery over conventional open surgery, a growing number of surgical procedures and the rise in gynaecological, neurological and urological disorders are the major factors that will boost market growth. As a result, the surgical robotic procedures market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9% during 2015‑2020, fostering the growth of the surgical robotics market.

Verb is developing a new robotic surgery platform to integrate technologies such as advanced imaging, data analysis, and machine learning to enable greater efficiency and improved outcomes across a wide range of surgical procedures.

The release last week of the study on adverse events in robotic surgery led to much discussion on the safety and effectiveness of robotic surgical procedures. While the hope is that this dialogue will mean safer and more effective robotic procedures in the future, the intense focus on safety and effectiveness seems to be compromising training opportunities for new robotic surgeons, who require many hours of “live” surgical practice time to develop their skills.

UPDATED 3/29/15 For over two years, Intuitive Surgical has been sued, tried, analyzed and criticized about the efficacy of their da Vinci surgical robots. But they have continued to thrive, grow and improve their products.

Imagine a swarm of microscopic robots that we inject into the vascular system: the swarm swims to the source of the problem, then either delivers therapeutics or undertakes microsurgery directly. That was how I opened a short invited talk at the Royal Society of Medicine, at a meeting themed The Future of Robotics in Surgery.

Automating repetitive surgical subtasks such as cutting and debridement can facilitate supervised tele-surgery, and reduce surgeon fatigue and procedure times. Programming these tasks can be difficult, however, in part because human tissue is deformable.

This concludes the ShanghAI Lecture series of 2012. After a wrap-up of the class, we announce the winners of the EmbedIT and NAO competitions and end with an outlook of the future of the ShanghAI Lectures.

Then there are three guest lectures: Tamás Haidegger (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) on surgical robots, Aude Billard (EPFL) on how the body shapes the way we move (and how humans can shape the way robots move), and Jamie Paik (EPFL) on soft robotics.